Stephanie Meadow’s hopes of qualifying for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship continued to dwindle with another tough round at the Toto Japan Classic.
The Jordanstown woman signed for a second consecutive round of 73 in Shiga to fall to 64th on the leaderboard at two-over-par and already 12 shots back of the halfway lead.
After a one-over-par first round, Meadow started her second poorly as she bogeyed her opening hole, the par-four 10th, although she did recover a shot at the par-four 13th.
But the 30-year-old was plagued by pars, rattling off 12 in a row before finishing her day with a bogey to card another 73 and drop back towards the bottom of the pack.
Meadow is currently projected to slip to 83rd in the Race to CME Globe standings, with only the top-60 progressing to the LPGA Tour finale in two weeks’ time, meaning she needs a big weekend to keep her hopes alive.
With only the Pelican Women’s Championship next week – a tournament she has done well in in the past, admittedly – left to come, the Galgorm touring pro knows only a good finish in Japan will give her a chance of making it to Naples.
Meanwhile, Momoko Ueda maintained her lead in Shiga as she backed up Thursday’s stunning 65 with a three-under 69 in her second round to hold a one-shot midway lead at 10-under-par.
The Japanese heads up a local-dominated leaderboard that sees six of the top-eight hail from Japan, with Miyu Yamashita and Ai Suzuki her closest rivals at nine-under-par and Sakura Koiwai a shot further back at eight-under.
World No.1 Atthaya Thitikul kept herself in contention with a second round 67 to move up to six-under-par for the tournament and in a share of eighth alongside Scotland’s Gemma Dryburgh and former ISPS HANDA World Invitational champion Pajaree Anannarukarn.
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